Today, we’re pleased to present an excerpt from Greg Gerke’s essay collection See What I See. Among those praising the book is Christine Schutt, who said, “See What I See is the very brew needed in these parched times. Greg Gerke’s generous, thoughtful reflections on the beguiling experience of art are full of uplift and reverence for the illuming efforts of writers and filmmakers: Louise Glück, William H. Gass, and William Gaddis, Stanley Kubrick and Paul Thomas Anderson, to name but a few.” Read on for one of the essays to be found within the pages of this book.
Morning Bites: Esmé Weijun Wang, Natalie Eilbert’s Poetry, Lync, Alec MacGillis Interviewed, and More
In our morning reading: new writing by Esmé Weijun Wang and Natalie Eilbert, revisiting the music of Lync, and more.
Sunday Stories: “A Slant of Light”
A Slant of Light
by Abby Manzella
The afternoon sun creeps stealthily onto Dolores’s desk—an ephemeral cat. Its low, reserved angle brings to mind Emily Dickinson’s “There’s a certain slant of light…” She recites it as she rests her pen, her voice breaking the stillness.
It has already been a long winter. She is tired of sweaters. She is exhausted by seeing her breath materialized like the ghost she feels herself to be.
Weekend Bites: Lydia Kiesling, Young Lions Finalists, Hillary Leftwich, J Dilla Revisited, and More
In our weekend reading: new writing by Lydia Kiesling, revisiting a J Dilla album, and more.
Afternoon Bites: Damon Locks, Literary Guggenheim Fellows, Neurosis, Sarah Gerard Interviewed, and More
In our afternoon reading: the music of Damon Locks, an interview with Sarah Gerard, and more.
An Infernal Revision: On Dinty W. Moore’s “To Hell With It”
In Italy they’re celebrating seven centuries of Dante ⎯ The Divine Comedy was finished in 1321, also the year Dante died ⎯ but I doubt anyone there has whipped up a carnival so wild as Dinty Moore’s. Long a champion of creative non-fiction, in this text he delivers what might be called “multi-media creative.” To Hell With It tosses together Moore’s hand-drawn cartoons and his old family photos, it toys with his Catholic-school catechism and meanders with him through the Midwestern flea markets, and the whole way, whatever the ostensible subject, it works canto by canto through Dante’s formidable opener to the Comedy, the Inferno.
Morning Bites: Sanjena Sathian, PEN Literary Awards, Big Other Book Awards, Jeff VanderMeer’s Latest, and More
In our morning reading: an excerpt from Sanjena Sathian’s new novel, lots of literary award winners, and more.
Afternoon Bites: “The Sympathizer” Adapted, Early Riser, Kirstin Valdez Quade Interviewed, Chelsea Bieker, and More
In our afternoon reading: “The Sympathizer” comes to TV, an interview with Kirstin Valdez Quade, and more.